THE DODO. 



367 



does not yield without an effort, using its feet, which are armed with 

 long and sharp claws, as weapons of defence. It builds a very rough 

 nest among the roots of marsh-growing shrubs, and lays a single egg, 

 excessively large in proportion 10 the size of the producer. The 

 natives call the bird Kiwi. They used at one time to hunt them 

 very perseveringly, as much for their flesh as for their feathers, which 

 they used in making mats. Now they have renounced this work, 



/ 



Fig. 146. Kiwi-kiwi, or Apteryx. 



the profits not compensating for the fatigue which is entailed. Day 

 by day it is becoming more rare. It is curious that extinction should 

 be the fate of most of the native New Zealand birds. 



EXTINCT BREVIPENNES. 



The order of the Brevipennes may be held to embrace some birds 

 which have now disappeared from the surface of the globe, but 

 which are supposed to be contemporaneous with Man. The remains 

 which are met with in quite modern alluvium scarcely admit of any 

 doubt in this respect. 



In the first rank of extinct birds we may place the Dodo (Didtis 

 ineftus, Fig. 147), which was indigenous to the Mauritius and the 



